Stuck!
by the mediocre writer
Summary: She wasn't thrown into Middle Earth for any reason whatsoever, as far as she could tell, but if she was Connie refused to play along. Too bad Fate didn't agree. Not a 10th Walker.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Lord of the Rings.

This is my little, light-hearted side project, because writing _Orc Queen_ puts me in depressing, deep moods that go against my very nature. Light hearted stories help me out of that funk and get my creative juices flowing.

Hence, this story was born! The idea I've been beating around a lot so I hope everyone will be able to get some light enjoyment out of it.

_Timeline__:_ Right when the _Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring_ begins.

_Warnings_: The beginning of this chapter starts off sounding way more serious than it actually is. My poor character is probably a Mary Sue (but hopefully not too much Sue will be involved), but she won't be a 10th walker though she will go on some adventures.

She might meet up with the Fellowship from time to time, but will mostly do her own thing not wanting to interfere with their quest. She won't travel with them into Moria or anything like that – for one, she would most likely die, as I think any person for our world would.

I will also be splicing the movie and book versions, because it's been years since I've read the books and I refuse to do so for a fan fiction. Hell, I'm reading the Silmarillion and that's quite enough dorkdom for me at one time.

This won't be a Legomance - I hope for you Legolas fans out there you'll still give this a chance (and this is from one Legolas lover to another). I was tempted to have her fall in love with Legolas, but decided I liked the idea of Glorfindel chasing my character around a mayhem infested Middle Earth better. Besides, free creative license with Glorfindel since who knows what he was doing during the books, besides saving Frodo's ass after he got stabbed by the Witch King.

Expect slight silliness, slight seriousness, but overall fun. That's the plan at least.

Enjoy!

**Stuck!**

_Get Me Out of This Hell Hole!_

_or_

_Follow that Maybe-Ship!_

Jetties stark black in color rose from waves of pearl foam. They glimmered in the faint moonlight and in the murky shadows undulated up and down like a pod of whales. The sand was unlike anything she'd ever seen. Millions of tiny salt crystals blinked lazily up at her and shimmered away as she took small, measured steps through the sand.

Endlessly the coast stretched before and behind her. There had been nothing - no settlement, no noise but the crashing of weak waves against fictionalized surfaces. The world was calm and cool, and her memory was slowly coming back to her in faint flashes.

When she opened her eyes to the see the ocean, she had remembered nothing and stood only to seek warmth, but as she strode down those endless miles of bleak coast memories cautiously resurfaced; like shadowy wisps of hazed smoke they filled her empty mind, slowly and calmly but persistently.

A strand of dark hair, a smile of a female senator, an image from an old black and white, in 1918 World War I military operations ended, friends on her cell's contact list, the taste of cold coffee...all these images came to her in an nonlinear fashion. She was glad of it for a little while, but that was before the fear started to slowly creep into her pores, into the crevasses of her brain; for the memories brought awareness and awareness brought fear, and fear carried loneliness.

She knew the names of small shells she spotted along the beach - ring top cowrie, calico pecten. Her thirst was because her body fluids were too saturated, because her blood had a low osmotic pressure. There was pain in her right ankle because she had sprained it numerous times. These were only few of the memories she had regained from her disorientation.

Everything around her was familiar – water, sand, air, and sky, but there was something different about this beach compared to the ones in her memories. The air was sharp, its freshness almost biting. The North Star was absent from the sky, but Orion and O'Ryan remained, their images flipped in the heavens.

Exhausted but not quite fearful or fearless, she sat on the sand and rubbed her arms. The moon lit the water, its image rippled and larger than in the sky. From its position, she could tell morning was hours away. The chill in the air calmed her mind as feverish as it had become, but she was too tired to think about anything right now. Tomorrow, when morning came, she promised herself she would be more logical.

Turning on her hands and knees she crawled up a small, bushy knoll and took a look at the expanse of land which ambled up and away from the sea. Plains endless in the dark and much like a dream spread out before her. The dim light let her see shadows of tors and maybe the image of a tree now and then, but there was no light of civilization, no bubble eyes of a nocturnal creature prowling the territory.

This isolation gave her peace of mind, and with the thought she fell into a dreamless slumber.

* * *

><p>With morning the hazed dream of confusion left and she once again knew herself.<p>

A red sun had replaced the blue moon and sat heavy and swollen on the horizon. It was bright and golden at the edges, pink further across the sky, and the clouds were shaded a deep purple. There was a strong gust of wind that brought the smell of salt and fish and hit her like a slap in the face. Closing her eyes, Connie prayed this was a dream.

Disorientation left and in its wake there was anxiety. It churned the acid in her belly and for a moment she really didn't want to stand up and face what most likely was reality. Therefore, it really didn't come as a surprise when, on deciding to not be a coward because it was bad for the soul, Connie opened her eyes to see she was indeed on a beach and not her bed.

First thought: Well, her bed sucked anyway. No hard feelings about that.

Second thought: _Where in God's green earth am I?_

Third thought: _How in the hell did I get to the beach? _

Home was no where near the ocean, but barely a meter there foaming waves were. Last night they had been further away from her resting place. At least the tides remained constant she thought before the urge to retch assailed her. Placing her head between her knees, Connie concentrated to the sound of the crashing waves.

Okay, first thing's first. She needed a plan.

The plan: _None come to mind, but I have a feeling I'm kind of screwed right now. Better plan coming to a theatre near you soon!_

Since there were no theatres near her she would have to make due.

"Be calm, stay calm, don't freak out..." Connie chanted instead trying her best to ignore the rapid beating of her heart. What was it that Andi was always saying when doing her new age yoga bullshit - find your inner peace and your body will follow suit. To her it had been a bunch of bull, and as she had known Andrea since the cradle and been prey to her stupid fads since a little after that she had never give her advice much thought, but perhaps it could help her now.

After a few moments trying to find said peace, always a difficulty since there were always too many thoughts rolling around her head, Connie came to a not quite astounding conclusion. Fake meditation didn't help at all, but at least it took her mind off the situation; if that was the smart thing or not had yet to be decided.

Well, there was always praying. As a "_good"_Catholic, raised in a good Catholic family as she supposed her family was, Connie knew one thing: pray _only_ when all other options were exhausted, and _only_ if there was no food around to take her mind off the problem. God would, if He had time and/or the desire, help.

It made sense. You didn't want to ask for too many favors too soon in life. What if you lived to be real old and God just got tired of doing you favors? Yep, made sense.

And so she prayed, kind of, but shutting her eyes tightly and wishing that this was a dream didn't seem to be cutting it for God. The harsh grains of sand and the salty odor of the sea were too pungent and real to be an illusion

Was there some sort of prayer she missed out on? It had probably been that one time she cut CCE class. Okay, it had been more than once, but really if God had wanted her at CCE class than he shouldn't have given her the gift of being an extremely swell liar, erm, actor. But she would have never dreamed about cutting religion class if she had known this was what was in store - actually, that was a lie too, but come on! Sunday afternoons were meant to be spent watching television and not doing homework due the next day.

Ah, the good, old high school days...

Well, maybe God was busy. She'd try Him later.

A crash of a large wave brought her back to her present and current dilemma. Oh yeah, she was stuck in the middle of nowhere, and if her memories from the night before had been correct, and not drug induced, then she probably wasn't on Earth. But at least she could breathe the air, right! That was something, and there were animals too. Winning!

Small green-brown crabs scuttled around her, running from the waves, and then chasing them back again in search for food. A small smile twisted Connie's lips. Struggling to her feat, Connie really looked around her for the first time and realized that at least part of her night assessment was right.

Plains stretched out behind her. Every now and then there was a rock formation, a sporadic tree, and further, much further, she could see the purple-blue shadow of mountains. _Or monster hills_. Climbing up a small mound of grass and sand, Connie took in the scene from a better perspective trying to get her bearings and thoughts together. She might have been slightly crazy from time to time, but her mother had raised her to be a realist, and right now she realized that she couldn't stand around all day thinking to herself.

"There has to be something around here." Her voice echoed on the salt filled air and did little but to creep her out. "Okay, I'm near the ocean so some port has to be near-ish."

Hopefully. A dark thought pointed out. Maybe this place had no people, because for all she knew this was not her world. It was an innate thought, a vibrating fact inside her blood. The last memory she had before last night was sitting by an old wishing well, her friend laughing across from her, the windows of her house ablaze with warm yellow light and the smell of cider and pumpkins, and then blackness.

One moment changed her completely, and, true to her style, it was a moment she couldn't remember. Winning...Not.

Looking over the sea again, Connie did a double take. Squinting in the early morning sun, she could just make out a dark blob on the horizon. A ship, perhaps? Whatever it was, it was traveling to the north, or what she thought was north. The sun rose in the east and set in the west so Connie was pretty sure it was to the north that the maybe-ship-but-maybe-not-a-ship could be traveling. Hopefully here the sun rose and went the same way.

Very aware of her state of dress - wet, soaked, with sand in the most inappropriate places, she wasn't looking forward to meeting any locals. The swimming shorts she was wearing and the sports bra she wore under her black hoodie probably wouldn't be very proper. The best she could hope for was some hedonistic culture that wouldn't mind her lack of clothing.

For Christ's sakes, if she knew her entire life would be changing some shopping would have been in order. For one, she would have invested in a nice, warm outfit, but then again she was rarely ever cold. Maybe a camping-esque outfit with a rain resistant jacket would be better. Yeah, that would have been the best option since she could tie the jacket around her waist or…

She smacked her head. There was no point in thinking about proper cloths now anyway, and besides if she didn't keep focused she would lose sight of the ship thingy. Eventually, Connie knew that she would lose sight of it, but she wanted to keep it in her line of sight for as long as possible. And while losing sight of a maybe-ship wasn't the worst scenario that crossed her mind, it was the only thing she really had going for her right now.

Damn, she should have been a runner, but the state of her body proved her thoughts on the matter. The most exercise she got came in the form of walking - around the park, to the metro, to her car, to the store, the once a month hiking expedition with Tiny Dancer, etc. She needed to lose about thirty pounds, but then again she could survive being not so skinny. It wasn't worth the pain. Or maybe it was. That decision had yet to be breached.

At least fat reserves would help her survive if food was hard to come by. Yay for positive thinking! With that thought, the walking, as she later came to call all long walks, commenced.

Trudging along in the sand after the first forty minutes wasn't easy but wasn't unexpected either. In fact, it was down right unpleasant because as much as she liked the beach she preferred swimming in the water rather than sun basking.

Happy thought time: At least she wasn't pale! Sunburn would be harder to come by.

Not so happy thought time: The weather sucked. From a nice, cool morning the day slowly became warm to burning hot and the salty air was stifling.

God, she wanted to sit down, close her eyes, and wake up in her lumpy bed that's mattress was in dire need of replacement, but she couldn't because the maybe-ship was just a speck on the horizon its travels by wind being much faster and less sand hindered than her own. _Note: who's smart idea was it to chase a maybe-ship?_

Leaning forward Connie, with her hands on her knees, took a couple of deep breaths. By god, where the hell was she? Where were the locals? She hoped they weren't scary, inhuman locals, or mean human locals with bad breath, no love of hygiene, and sexual ideas in their heads. She could fight off one man with a relatively high chance of success, but not two or more. She was a strong girl, but not that strong!

It would probably be a good idea to find a large stick or rock to carry with her for protection, and in the mist of trying to find said supplies there came another thought. Humans aside, she knew there were animals, and where there were animals there was a food chain. She gulped. Food chains didn't bode well for uninformed creatures. Creatures like her!

"Whatever." The word escaped her lips thankfully stopping the beginnings of a minor panic attack. Thank god for her innate easygoingness or else she might have been a problem.

In the next three hours, it was the same beach scenery with the exception of no more ship, but Connie had taken a poll and concluded that her spirits were still in the middle to high range. It wasn't much but it was something, and judging by the sun it was just about two in the afternoon. There was still a lot of day left to discover a settlement or something…

Like an animal with huge teeth and really sharp talons.

Hmm. What would be worse - to be maimed by a human or animal? Another poll was taken and her body unanimously decided it'd would rather been maimed by an animal. At least then she would be part of a cycle of life and her spirit would live on in said animal. These happy thoughts, and others, kept her focused for the next couple of hours as she hugged the coast line.

Her other thoughts included: this place, world, or whatever was beautiful but uncivilized. Well, in a high tech sense.

There hadn't been an airplane, or a flying 'thing', no hum of a car motor or a machine, and no smog. The water was blue and held almost too much life; dolphins or very large fish jumped in the distance, crabs scuffled along the bench unaware and uncaring of her, _rude!_, strange birds flew over head cawing much like a gull would. Complete isolation.

This of course could be easy disproven. There could be very little people and not a lot of technology, or maybe no people but monster magic locals that had ships.

And then the land started to slope. Sand became rock, plains became forest, and the rock became moist dirt. The plains disappeared into trees and the earth became cut with ravines, thick with green moss and large, vibrant trees.

She did her best to keep to the coast, but the water was far below her now and the crashing of waves an echo on rock. Slowly thick foliage ate the scenery and she was stuck in a damp forest, almost a very shallow wet land, until it opened to a sandy banks of what she thought was a river delta. It's green and pregnant flow of water streamed into an estuary, the cliffs where she came from curving around the water and blocking the open ocean from her sight.

The break in the canopy allowed her to see that sun was further in the sky, probably around later afternoon time, and Connie sighed trying to wipe dirt and pieces of forest off her. The forest had been cool, but the sun was blazing hot and her skin almost immediately became sticky with sweat. And one hot, sweaty, hungry, and thirty Connie did not equate to one happy camper.

"Shit," she cursed taking off her running shoes and rinsing the mud off with water. "This really sucks."

Now was a good time as any to cry. Too bad she had already tired with no success.

This is what happens to people who spend their whole lives trying not to cry, Connie thought mockingly, when they actually need to cry they can't. Great. Perfect. Now how was she supposed to vent? Punch a tree? Maybe...No bad idea.

Blinking as she came again into the sun, Connie decided that she should do as she did earlier that morning - gather her bearings. If she couldn't cry pathetically then she should at least do _something_. Precious daylight was wasting away.

She took in everything: the trees, the cliffs, the inlet, and the river. She'd lost sight of that maybe-ship ages ago because of the stupid forest, but she was now on the banks of a rather large, slow moving river. Rivers led to places like civilizations - hello, river valley civilizations! - and theoretically this river could give her a better deal than that lame maybe-ship. It would provide water at least.

The trees stretched down the dark green river on both sides. Here there was a problem. Hug the coast and get to civilization, or hug the river and have water and food, and maybe reach some type of town?

The choice was obvious. She had enough skill due to her camp loving family and smarts (at least she'd like to think she possessed some intelligence) to meet basic survival needs for a time. Besides, she wasn't worried about surviving - she was worried about being alone for the rest of her life and never being able to return home.

Huckleberry Finn, eat your heart out!


	2. Chapter 2

**Standard disclaimer applies. **

Thank you for your kind reviews! I am happy that no Sue warning bells are going off _yet_. Also, let me apologize in advance for this chapter being a bit choppy.

For all those who are reading _Orc Queen_, I am half done with the next chapter. On that note, I hate Legolas; he's giving me anxiety attacks. Personal thought: If such a crazy thing existed as getting thrown into Middle Earth, I bet it would be just my luck to meet Legolas and have him be a total let down.

Anyway,  
>Enjoy!<p>

**Stuck!**

_Where is Bear Grylls When You Need Him?_

_or_

_The Long Tale of the Things I Dared Eat!_

"Fucking trees," Connie cursed struggling for the fifth time to climb up one Leviathan tree that, in her opinion, had just enough girth to support her weight, and she was no light flower by any means. Not that she was fat, but she was tall and rather, erm, sturdy...farm girl or avid softball player sturdy, and that meant she wasn't taking chances with smaller branches, because falling to her death didn't seem very appealing. That would be for tomorrow, if she survived tonight, and only if rabid squirrels or carnivorous deer were after her. Both seemed unlikely, but anything was possible.

The sun was setting and a hazy darkness settled over the forest. Incidentally, it made hoisting her body up a tree a whole lot harder; she could barely make out what she touched in the twilight. Her monkey of a brother would have already been up to the highest most branches if he'd been here, but she wasn't her brother. As such her arms burned with scratches, her knees were bruised and pounding, and her ass really hurt from falling down not once but three times from prior, unsuccessful climbing attempts. Hell, she might have broken her tail bone, but really who was complaining?

Why couldn't any tree in this God forsaken forest have any lower branches she could start with? But nooo...that was asking for too much. They all had to be about a few inches taller than her, and she'd never been great with pull ups, but she could jump pretty high when the time called for it.

She was out of shape, but even when she'd been in peak condition climbing a tree had always been a sucky experience. She didn't have the upper body strength. Sure, she was a strong girl. She could pick up heavy objects, hit pretty hard, but that was different. If there was any proof that humans didn't evolve from monkeys but a separate species entirely it would be her. Of course, she knew better, but that didn't assure her tree climbing prowess.

Finally letting herself fall down on the uneven ground, Connie placed her arms akimbo on her waist. Straining to see in the tinted blue darkness, she looked around her for something to stand on – a fallen log, a dead carcass…Silly thoughts aside, Connie knew she'd be safer up in a tree sleeping than on the ground. Bears could be around or other sorts of rabid animals having a fondness for tasty man-flesh.

Squirrels though would have free game, and though she had never been a huge fan of tree rats she'd rather take them on than any other animal. They were greedy, hoarding little buggers, but that was despite the point. The point beginning that she desperately needed Bear Grylls, but where was he when you needed him? Not around that's where! And though he might not have been around in a physical sense, Connie felt his advice in her heart.

"_Connie,"_ Bear's light, English accent tickled her ear. _"You must get into the trees. It's not safe on the ground. Remember my lessons to you."_

"I know!" Connie said coughing up some mucus acquired during her heavy exertations. Gross. "But I don't have your strength to get up this tree."

"_Adventurers never give up, Connie, use the forest. Everything around you is a tool. Think back to Season Two, Episode Five."_

Bear was right. She couldn't give up, and she absolutely was not going to sleep out in the open completely defenseless. A tree provided minimal protection, but she'd make due. There was nothing around her to help her get up in the tree, and she was too heavy for plant made rope. Besides, she didn't even know how to really make a rope out of ferns and vines, and she didn't have the time either. It would have been just one big, hot mess.

Huffing, feeling sweat roll down her arms and face, Connie glared at the tree in front of her and decided to give it one more go. After a prolonged period of pain, muffled and unusual noises one only hears during heightened passions of coupling, and a few well placed curses Connie finally managed to haul herself up.

And was most likely going to vomit.

Lying folded over a thick tree branch wasn't the ideal position for her ribs or stomach, but she was too damned tired to move. The air was sticky with the smell of detritus and sap and the forest was eerily calm. There were only a few sounds echoing in the undergrowth. It was warmer than she would have liked, but huzzah, she'd gotten up into the dumb tree! She was freaking amazing. Bear would have been proud.

Before her head began to swim, Connie hauled herself to lie on the branch precariously. There was no way she was going to get comfortable tonight. For one, it was a little too warm, the branch a little too hard, and she had open wounds that were sure to leave scars. Scars Connie could take or leave, but her arms were bleeding. Not profusely bleeding, but the underside, fleshy part of them was covered in fine shin of blood. So help her God if bears or crazy forest tigers came and gobbled her up in the middle of the night there would be hell to pay. HELL! She would haunt their hairy butts and not let them hibernate through the winter, and if they were cats she would pull on their tails mercilessly. That would show them, but bears, tigers, or not her injuries stung like the dickens.

"Shit." Connie breathed, and with that settled in for the long haul.

And at that time, she really had no idea how long her haul would actually be.

* * *

><p>Good thing was that the bears hadn't gotten her. Yet. Bad thing was she was slowly sipping into insanity and losing fat reserves at a rate she was pretty sure was unhealthy.<p>

When she first started this little adventure, Connie assumed that she would eventually run into a town or some sort of sentient being within three days max. When she had awoken that second day in extreme pain, she had somehow managed, in a feat of acrobatic amazing-ness that would have stunned the best at Cirque du Soleil, to roll herself off her branch and land in a painful lump of flesh on the forest floor. She might have passed out, she might not have, but all Connie knew was that some time had passed before she had been able to pull herself off the ground.

She hadn't been able to walk far that day, pain aside, but she found a dead fish that had died only recently. Or she talked herself into believing it had died only recently. It didn't smell half as bad as it should have anyway, and she had been far too hungry to complain even if she did hate fish. Hell, she didn't even light a fire and cook it – not that she had the materials or the patience to do so, but simply ripped its scales off with a jagged rock and forced herself to pick out as much meat as she dared. She had even swallowed the eyeballs - she remembered a man doing the same thing when lost at sea for a few months in a documentary. But whereas he did it for the water stored in the eyes, she did it for the food part.

To her delight, the fish hadn't tasted too bad, but she had been _really_ hungry, weak, and in pain. At that time, she hadn't eaten since the afternoon two days before so she was long past due for her next meal. She'd also hit her head pretty hard and the sharp pain hadn't really faded.

Anyway, despite the crap morning, the fish had been a lucky find, and the good news was she hadn't gotten sick because of it. Winning!

Going to the bathroom though became more of a challenge with every passing day…especially as her hand started to smell, for obvious reasons that Connie didn't want to think about. For being in a forest with very large trees, there was a limited supply of decently sized leaves. There was also a scarcity of soap, and there was only so much bathing could do when there was no soap involved. Not winning.

That night she refused to sleep in a tree; although Bear Grylls had appeared in her dreams to chastise her, Connie was in no mind to try her luck ever again. Bear stopped speaking to her after that.

The next day rolled around in the same fashion: the day beginning too early, her body hurting even more, but there had been no feats of acrobatics. (Because of this she lost her fake job with Cirque du Soleil. She wasn't very sad about it - it did put a damper on her dream of marrying a trapeze artist though.)

Traveling along the river was proving more taxing that she thought as well. Did God, in all His grand magnificence, have to make so many damn gorges and ravines in one place? She was so plant infested Connie was sure she was turning into a mobile thicket. Her life flashed before her eyes.

First, she would begin to attract all kinds of beasts, turn into some crazy hippie-forest friend who thought they were able to communicate with animals, and live life as a tree until some hapless person came to cut her down for wood but end up getting way more than they bargained for. This fate didn't settle well in her stomach.

That third day of travel, she managed to find some mushrooms. She didn't eat them, but did end up eating a few worms. Connie was a bit disgusted with herself, but as it was necessary she sang herself a little jingle to make herself feel better about the whole experience…

"_Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,  
><em>_Guess I'll go eat worms,  
><em>_Long, thin, skinny ones: short, fat, juicy ones,  
><em>_Itsy, bitsy, fuzzy worms._

_Down goes the first one, down goes the second one,  
><em>_Oh how they wiggle and squirm.  
><em>_Up comes the first one, up comes the second one…"_

…and promptly threw up.

She'd do better next time.

The forth day, loneliness began to settle in. She tried to fish with no luck and was again tempted to eat some mushrooms. She resisted.

The fifth day, she spotted a deer! Also tried her luck with fishing again and somewhat managed to catch a fish by blocking it into a small lagoon like her uncle taught her when he pretended, for a time of exactly one month, to be some sort of forest-river man. Her uncle didn't have great technique, but he had at least shown her the basics. Why in the world had she been signled out? To this day Connie had no idea, but her guess was that it was because she was the last person to leave room once he began talking about his newest hobby. And God bless her soul, she just couldn't say no to him.

Anyway, Bear would have been proud of her achievement. Too bad they weren't speaking to each other.

The sixth day of her estrangement from humanity, Connie finally sobbed, and when she was finally able to stop, gathering her peace from the silence, some type of bird ended up shitting on her head. It brought on another round of tears, and when again she stopped Connie ate some worms hoping they were the bird's dinner. Damn air rats!

The seventh day, hope again rose within her. She had had a long conversation with God the previous night and they had both come to the conclusion that good things happened to people who waited. The crying also had made her feel a bit better.

That night she managed to find a dead deer, but despite her hunger Connie was too scared to eat it. Why couldn't she have been born a lion? Instead, she tried to eating a beetle. The beetle won, but that adventure lead her to a bush of wild black berries. She ate them all.

On the eight day, Connie found herself out of the forest facing grasslands with gentle, swollen hills as far as she could see. The green, tall grass of the landscape danced back and forth with the pressure of the sweeping wind, and Connie welcomed the fragrant breeze. That day she managed to capture three fish in a shallow pool of rocky water, and tried her luck with building a fire. It didn't work, though her sticks got pretty warm. Almost winning!

And so another week passed in the same manner, and Connie slowly felt herself losing hope of ever coming across a freaking settlement or human or something that could talk! Hell, she'd take Gollum! He would talk to himself, she would talk to herself, and they would fit together like two crazy peas in a pod. But no, she was stuck in some weird place alone, and Connie found herself talking to herself aloud more than what was normal. She was turning into the female equivalent of Gollum. Another month or so with her new diet and she'd even be super model skinny! Perfect couple. Gag.

Stumbling into a small land depression, Connie landed flat on her face and for the first time didn't feel like getting up. What bride of Gollum would want to?

"A little over two weeks…That's how long I've been alone." Her voice carried lightly on the wind and dissipated into it quickly. She felt a familiar pressure clog her throat.

She missed everyone. She missed her family, wanted her mom to come hold her tight, to rub her back and whisper that everything was okay. She missed her horrible, no good bed, showers, real tooth brushes, cold pizza, and trashy T.V. She missed all these things and people, but this emptiness probably wouldn't have been so bad if she didn't have to bear it all alone.

More than anything, she wanted human contact. The silence was pressing. Solitude had never been a problem for her, but that was before she somehow ended up here. And there was always that ringing fear: she was alone. What if she was the only sentient being, human, in this place? Her life would evolve into nothing more than eating fish, trying to start fires, and long walks for the sole purpose of finding other people who might not even be around.

A dry harsh, sob racked her body, and Connie squeezed her eyes shut. This really, really sucked; the out of control emotions, the whole being lost and alone thing, but she couldn't give up. She couldn't. Not yet. There was still hope. There ways always hope!

"Besides," Connie sniffed sitting up off the ground, unaware that she was speaking. "What kind of dumb-ass place doesn't have people?"

This place apparently. It wasn't a cheerful thought.

**A/N:** For those waiting for some hot elf loving (or at least interaction), please be patient. It will come, but let's think about this. If you were sucked into Middle Earth and dumped somewhere in its unpopulated bowels more likely than not you'd run into no one for a long time. In fact, most of us would probably die pretty quickly. No offense to anyone. I mean I have some pretty awesome camping skills, but I really don't think I would be able to survive for more than a week without something terrible happening to me.

Besides, Middle Earth isn't very populated, and where dear Connie was dumped is home to pretty much no one. No worries though! Everything will turn out fine in the end. There are a few different futures I'm considering for her, but as they say "All roads eventually lead to Rivendell". Okay, well all roads lead to Rome, but whatever.


End file.
